


Great Dane!

by Msgay



Category: Berena - Fandom, Holby City
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Big Macho Army Medic Bernie Wolfe, F/F, Meet-Cute, Nuremberg-y Serena is hot, One Shot, puppies!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-21 13:46:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18703528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Msgay/pseuds/Msgay
Summary: Alternative universe where Serena is a dog trainer and Bernie, an artist, moves into the neighbourhood. There is an adorable and hyperactive Great Dane ready to play Cupid...How long will Serena resist Bernie in a tank top? Can Bernie resist Nuremberg-y Serena? (Not long and of course not).





	Great Dane!

**Author's Note:**

> Important note: I am not a Native English speaker. Any mistakes are probably because I was staring at my English teachers' legs most of the time...  
> First try at fanfiction, I hope you enjoy it!

Bernie had never considered herself a struggling artist until her great-aunt passed away and left her an apartment in Holby; not having to pay rent anymore would make such a difference she was forced to reevaluate her prices and concluded that she had been far too generous, naive even, in some deals.  
She and some friends moved her paintings and sculptures carefully a day before the movers came. She couldn’t afford a specialised art moving company and she was taking no chances.  
The morning of the move she was alone directing the movers when she heard screaming from across the street. She turned around in time to see an enormous dog running full throttle in her direction; she was knocked down in less than two seconds. The dog seemed to think she was hiding biscuits or was herself a biscuit.  
‘Bruno! Bruno, no!’ – Bernie needed air and her back hurt a lot. Bruno was so heavy she really couldn’t move properly. It took two moving men to get Bruno off her. He seemed to want to play while everyone was trying not to get crushed. A third moving man helped Bernie up, her back felt stiff and she coughed a few times. She eyed the hyperactive dog and recognised it as a Dane, she was lucky she had no broken bones. An elderly lady in crutches approached them.  
"I’m so sorry! I totally lost control. Are you alright?"  
Bernie was about to reply when Bruno tried to lick her face making the men start talking to him as if he was a wild horse.  
"I was taking him to the McKinnie’s dog school on the corner. I really can’t do much with the crutches, I’m afraid. We just got him from the pound, he rarely left the premises as he was too intimidating even for the volunteers…" She went on to explain her crutches were due to a fall in the bathroom, nothing to do with Bruno.  
Bernie ignored her pain and offered to go and get someone from the school to help them with Bruno. The men were visibly offended and insisted they could take him. Bernie was in too much pain to argue, she walked slowly with Gloria’s crutches setting a pace she could handle.  
At McKinnie’s the men made Bruno sit in the lobby, nodded proudly at Gloria, and went back to the move. As soon as they left, Bruno got restless; one minute Bernie was helping Gloria sit down and the next she was holding on to Bruno’s collar for dear life.

Serena had been a dog trainer for over twenty years; she had seen it all, or so she thought. Serena believed all dogs were trainable, it was almost always the owner’s fault, ignorance or carelessness that made dogs misbehave. The rare dogs she couldn’t train were either because people had unrealistic expectations or were actively going against her indications.  
She was sipping her coffee and browsing through her notes when a commotion outside her office got her attention; she got up lazily but soon sped up and she could clearly hear furniture being thrown around.  
"What on Ear-" She started to scream but ran out of air as she spotted Bernie managing more or less to prevent a 160 lbs Great Dane from jumping onto the reception desk. She took in her toned body: her strong biceps, her white tank top fitted perfectly, her shorts revealed endless legs… Bernie was starting to sweat a bit with the effort, her fringe was glued to her forehead, her arms were glistening…  
"Serena, help! Bruno! Down!" Morven’s worried scream snapped Serena our of her reverie and she got into dog trainer mode. Two steps forward, eye contact.  
"Bruno! Hell. Now!" It was more the tone than the volume that made Bruno obey. Serena got a snack from her pocket and rewarded him. Bernie all but collapsed, either from the effort or because she had never seen the Goddess of Beauty and Fury in person before. They stared at each other until Gloria faintly asked for help, neither women had noticed she had fallen over. Behind Morven a small Chihuahua had soiled itself.  
Twenty minutes later and McKinnie’s looked spotless instead of a disaster area. Titus, the Chihuahua was all clean and was slowly relaxing, Bruno was comfortably chewing on a teddy bear. At last Serena thought she could pass for nonchalant and extended her hand to Bernie.  
"Hullo. I’m Serena, we haven’t been introduced. Are you Petra, Gloria’s daughter?" She smiled and hoped against hope this wasn’t Petra who she knew was married with kids.  
"Oh. No, no. I’m Bernie. I’m new. I was just moving in when Bruno charged and jumped on me. I thought I had good reflexes but… _swoosh-bam_!" She gestured what looked like an airplane crashing.  
"Ha. Yes, Great Danes are bulldozers at full speed. You must be quite strong if you managed to control him." Serena squeezed Bernie’s bicep and badly suppressed a whimper.  
"Considering how the room looked a few minutes ago, I really didn’t control him. You though… that was…"  _hot_ , she thought.  "impressive."  
"ah. Thanks. Comes with experience. I never get angry with a dog and always assume they will obey.’  
"Are you always so Nuremberg-y?" She grinned when Serena started to laugh.  
"Wouldn’t you like to know?"  
Morven cleared her throat and Serena reluctantly removed her hand from Bernie’s bicep, Bernie blushed and avoided eye contact. Morven indicated where Gloria and Bruno were supposed to go. Bernie couldn’t think of a reason to linger.  
"I should get back to my move, actually…"  
"ah. … where exactly are you moving into then?" Bernie pointed to her building. "Small garden, ground floor, the stupidly low balcony with the boxes?"

"I will see you everyday then!" Serena couldn’t believe she said that out loud.  
Bernie’s eyes darkened, and Serena tensed from trying to hold back pure desire.  
"I hope so." Over the next two days both women kept trying to come up with excuses to see each other. Bernie spent more time than necessary in her balcony; Serena regularly went to check the weather. Neither seemed to be able to think of the perfect excuse. Serena did get to see Bernie in another skimpy outfit again though, for which she was very grateful.  
Finally, on the third day, Serena decided to just try her luck. She offered to walk, eh, Brutus, was it? Morven was surprised but said nothing. Brutus was a 200lbs English Mastiff who was resenting his owner’s new job as it meant he was home alone the whole day, he had taken to chewing on chairs and peeing on shoes. Serena put on her sunglasses hoping they would disguise her looking for Bernie. She thought they could start at least greeting each other and then, as soon as possible, go into small talk so Serena could flirt. At the exact moment Serena and Brutus were approaching Bernie’s building, Bernie was getting out of the shower. She was waking to her bedroom when she heard barking followed by "No! Noooooo!" Bernie groaned. It had taken her a trip to her osteo and quite a few pills to get her back to loosen a bit so she wasn’t exactly skipping when she went to her balcony. She saw the rear of a huge dog that was barking madly and trying to crawl under her balcony but he was too big to fit. A few meters away, and swearing impressively, was the object of her fantasies trapped in her bush.  
Serena had been too distracted when she put the harness and lead on Brutus so he flew out of her control when he spotted a cat. She was now lodged in a bush like an idiot. She was mortified when she heard Bernie ask if she was alright; her arse and legs were trapped – this was not part of her plan to woo Bernie! She stopped trying to get up and sagged further in when she finally noticed Bernie was wrapped in a towel. Was she trying to kill her? Can you go into cardiac arrest from arousal? Bernie made to help her up but she waved her off.  
"No – Brutus, get Brutus! He was after some poor cat." Said terrified cat was hiding under Bernie’s balcony luckily unharmed. Bernie adjusted her towel and managed to put the lead onto Brutus’ harness and painfully dragged him away and tied him up to the other side of her balcony. The cat broke some sort of speed record running away. Serena managed to get up but still had her right leg stuck, she was scratched all over. Bernie offered her hands as support. Serena didn’t know how she resisted leaning her forehead on Bernie’s bare shoulder, there were water drops begging to be licked…  
"Are you hurt?"  
"Hm? N-no. no, thank you… you seem to always come to the rescue." She was now free from the bush, but they were still standing quite close and holding hands.  
"Yeah, maybe next time bring a small dog? My back can’t take much more of your enormous dogs."  
"oh, don’t tell me you’re hurt."  
"Well, I _was_ squashed by an adult Great Dane and I wasn’t wearing my armour…"  
Serena laughed. She tried to walk but winced in pain. Bernie started to fret so Serena went into trainer mode again.  
"You go inside and change"  _so I can focus_   "I’ll call Morven to come and get Brutus and ask my partner to take me to the hospital."  
Bernie’s heart and stomach sank simultaneously.  
"Partner?" She whispered sadly.  
"Business! Business partner! Sian. She - single. I’m single." She stopped babbling when she noticed Bernie’s smile. They smiled at each other as they realised they were on the same page.  
Turns out Sian couldn’t take Serena to the hospital as she had new service puppies coming in, so Bernie volunteered. Between the ride and the waiting period, they had time to start getting to know each other.  
"You’ve gone above and beyond with Bruno, Brutus, and this, Bernie. How can I ever repay you?"  
"Dinner?"  
"Tonight?"  
They smiled at each other and only stopped looking into each other’s eyes when the nurse called Serena’s name for the second time.


End file.
